Finds Thread

[retrotech42]

I've had a few good finds lately, so I thought I'd start a new conquest thread. First find: a 17" MultiScan I picked up for a dollar. Not bad considering it's working and in decent shape. Second find is a boxed Indigo iMac I got for $50.

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Would that be the one that recently was on eBay?  I'm assuming you were able to do a local pickup and save the monitor from succumbing to Spindler plastics.

 

[retrotech42]

Yes, turns out the seller was located only 5 minutes from me!

 

[retrotech42]

Almost had a good find today at Goodwill. They had a 2006 Mac Pro, an Apple IIe, and a Quadra 950. Our Goodwill must have started using eBay as a reference point, because all of them were priced at $150.

 

[Macdrone]

wow goodwill had some stuff, nice!

 

[EvilCapitalist]

$150 for a Quadra 950 actually doesn't sound too bad, the last few I've seen went for at least $200 untested.

 

[EvieSigma]

I paid $100 for a 950 with no cards, no hard drive, and no drive carrier. $150 would be a great deal for a complete 950.

 

[Themk]

I saw an LC II at my local thrift shop about a month or two ago. $5, but no floppy drive. If it had a floppy drive, I would have gotten it.

When I went today, I was able to obtain lots of S-Video ADB cables for hacking. Gotta test the ADB KVM thingy. (Check peripherals sub forum for more information).

 

[retrotech42]

Awesome! This one appears to be complete, but I haven't tested it with a monitor. I can hear a hard drive spinning and I get the boot chime, so it looks pretty promising. The case is in very good condition as well, there is some yellowing but no scratches.

 

[retrotech42]

Update: The Quadra was on sale for $75, so I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I brought it home, opened it up, and found a Daystar PowerPro 601 accelerator inside! I believe it is the 100MHz model. I also found a good SuperMac video card as well. The only problem with this unit is that I get no picture through both the graphics card and built in video. There's a startup chime followed immediately by a death chime, and then the machine seems to boot up normally, except for the blank screen.

 

[rsolberg]

The 950 has four VRAM SIMM slots plus 1MB VRAM on the logic board. VRAM SIMMs must be installed in pairs of four and only 256KB per slot is addressable. If there are any VRAM SIMMs installed, try removing them all and see if startup changes with only the soldered VRAM.

Edit: If you haven't already, removing the accelerator card and video card and trying to boot with the 68040 and onboard video on their own might be useful troubleshooting steps.

 

[retrotech42]

Is the VRAM located underneath the power supply? If so, all the slots are empty. I've tried disconnecting the hard drive, floppy drive, and CD drive as basic troubleshooting but still get the same problem.

 

[omidimo]

Zap the PRAM too. 

 

[Unknown_K]

Check the RAM and make sure they are installed in the correct banks. I think they are installed 2 in the top row and 2 in the bottom row to make a set.

 

[jhorvath911]

My 950 did the same thing when I pulled it out of storage. Ended up pulling all the ram out and installed in pairs till I found bad ram.

 

[retrotech42]

Update: She lives! There were four sticks in Bank A that weren't compatible. I've never seen RAM like this and can't find any info online. Does anyone know anything about them?

 

[Bolle]

Looks like your usual 16MB SIMM from back then. I have some like those in my 950/WGS95 and my IIci and they work just fine.

Maybe one of them is dead?

 

[retrotech42]

Yep, turns out two of them were dead.

 

[retrotech42]

Also, I recently bought a dead TAM with no power. I received it today and opened up the power supply. I found this inside: It looks like someone attempted to repair it and put some sort of resin over all the components. It also looks like they tried to solder the orange wire and damaged some components and the PCB. Would this be possible to repair? Or would I need a new base unit/PSU?